Between Heroes and Villains: The Grey Area Explored

When a child is asked what a hero is, they often respond with saying that they’re a person who has powers and beats up bad guys. But then when asked what a ‘bad guy’ is, they say that it would be someone who hurts people. But then heroes and villains are the same. So the hero is described by perspective. A villain might commit horrible acts yet still think that he is a hero who is helping a city. In John Gardner, author of Grendel, plays with the gray area between a hero and a villain throughout his novel, provoking ideas about what the essence of a hero is. A hero is an individual who alters a society in a progressive way and becomes irrelevant when the society is changed due to a lack of purpose due to the new culture’s different needs for

The dragon is the gateway to this realization of the power he has over the citizens, urging Grendel to continue to torment the people. As he convinces him, he argues, “You improve them...you stimulate them! You make them think and scheme. You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes them what they are for as long as they last. You are, so to speak, the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves”(73). While Grendel argues that his thoughtless attacks have no meaning except for violence, the dragon retaliates that his attacks are the most beneficial thing that Grendel could do for the society. By becoming the antagonist, Grendel is able to provide a point of comparison that the society can move away from, much like the traditional hero provides a basis for personality traits that the society wants to strive for. He becomes a solid part of mankind as a whole, just as necessary as a hero is. But Grendel also knows the extent he can alter them without breaking the society. Just like glass will shatter if one tries to bend it, but once it’s heated it molds with ease. When contemplating his attacks, he thinks, “Balance is everything...I could finish them off in a single night,

Throughout this time he begins to lose himself in his philosophy, resorting to more frequent attacks and personal insanity. He begins to believe he is a god, creating everything around him on his whim. During some fits of rage he commits acts that he viewed as horrible when he was still shaping the society. When Hrothgar gets a new queen, Grendel fall into emotional confusion, and he, in a emotion-driven blood lust, “decided to kill her. I firmly committed myself to killing her, slowly, horribly. I would begin by holding her over the fire...I would squeeze out her feces between my fists...Grendel the truth-teacher”(109). Though before he had said the worst act of nihilism he could do was to kill her and he viewed the queen’s life as a high point in her personality, he kills her as soon as he wants to. This unplanned attack represents the mental instability residing inside of Grendel, throwing his reasoning into chaos. Throughout the end of the book he continues to talk to himself, arguing and mocking his actions in his head. Grendel Tries to repress this side of him at first, but in the end the lack of purpose drives the existentialist insane. For what is an existentialist without a purpose but an unintended nihilist, something Grendel despises even until his death. Nearing the end of the